- Wages Rise but Investment Power Falls as Asset Prices Outpace Salaries
Workers across developed economies may be earning more in nominal terms, but the number of stocks, gold and Bitcoin their salaries can purchase has fallen sharply, according to research by online trading platform Taurex.
The study, covering 34 countries, found that asset prices have risen much faster than average wages since 2020, widening the divide between people who already own investments and those attempting to enter financial markets using employment income.
Greece recorded the largest decline in stockmarket purchasing power. Although its average annual salary increased to €18,801 in 2025, the amount of domestic equities that income could purchase was 56.6 per cent lower than in 2020.
An annual Greek salary could theoretically buy 10.4 ounces of gold in 2020. Five years later, it could purchase only 6.2 ounces a decline of about 41 per cent.
The deterioration was substantially greater for Bitcoin. An average annual Greek salary could buy 1.65 Bitcoin in 2020 but only 0.21 by 2025.
The findings illustrate a distinction frequently obscured by conventional measures of wage growth. A salary can increase faster than consumer-price inflation and still lose ground against the assets households need to accumulate to build long-term wealth.
“Most workers got a pay rise that outpaced inflation,” a market analyst at Taurex said. “That framing is technically accurate and also quite misleading.”
The research used Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development salary data between 2020 and 2025 and compared changes in annual earnings with national stockmarket indices, gold and Bitcoin.
It calculated how much of each asset an average annual salary could acquire at the beginning and end of the period.
Slovenia recorded the second-largest reduction in domestic equity purchasing power, at 45.4 per cent. Its average annual salary reached €37,569 in 2025, but the amount of gold it could purchase fell from 17.1 ounces to 12.4 ounces.
The Bitcoin equivalent dropped more severely, from 2.72 coins to 0.42.
Czechia followed with a 40 per cent loss in stockmarket purchasing power. An average salary of CZK639,181 could acquire the equivalent of 1.75 Bitcoin in 2020 but only 0.29 in 2025.
Japan ranked fourth. Its average salary of ¥5.19mn lost 39.5 per cent of its purchasing power relative to Japanese stocks.
The amount of gold that an average Japanese salary could buy declined from 24.7 ounces to 10.1 ounces, while its Bitcoin equivalent fell from 3.93 coins to 0.34.
Israel placed fifth, with a 37.4 per cent reduction in equity purchasing power. Its average salary of ILS209,935 could buy 17.7 ounces of gold in 2025, down from 27.5 ounces in 2020. Its Bitcoin equivalent fell from 4.39 coins to 0.60.
Norway recorded one of the report’s most striking changes.
An average Norwegian annual salary could have purchased 5.52 Bitcoin in 2020. By 2025, despite nominal wage growth, the same salary could buy only 0.70 of a coin.
Its gold purchasing power also fell from 34.7 ounces to 20.6 ounces, while its capacity to invest in domestic stocks declined by 35.1 per cent.
Italy, Spain, Canada and Ireland also ranked among the 10 countries recording the largest losses in stockmarket purchasing power.
Canadian workers experienced a 30.6 per cent reduction, with an average salary’s gold equivalent falling from 30.5 ounces to 17.9 ounces. Its Bitcoin equivalent dropped from 4.85 coins to 0.60.
In Ireland, an average salary could purchase 33.1 ounces of gold or 5.28 Bitcoin in 2020. By 2025, that had fallen to 20.9 ounces of gold or 0.71 Bitcoin.
The decline does not mean workers would ordinarily invest an entire annual salary in a single asset. The comparison instead provides a common measure of how quickly financial assets have appreciated relative to labour income.
The report raises a more consequential question than whether wages are keeping pace with everyday consumer prices.
Workers typically depend on salaries to meet immediate living expenses and generate savings. Those savings may then be invested in shares, pension funds, property, gold or other assets.
When financial assets appreciate much faster than wages, people who already own them benefit from capital gains. Those without investments face a progressively higher entry cost.
That dynamic can widen inequality even during periods when employment is strong and real wages are increasing.
“The S&P 500 more than doubled between 2020 and 2024, gold hit record highs, and Bitcoin multiplied many times over,” the Taurex analyst said.
The analyst noted that smaller markets, including Latvia, New Zealand and Finland, provided relatively stronger opportunities because local stock prices had not moved as far ahead of wages as those in some larger markets.
The findings should nevertheless be interpreted cautiously. Bitcoin is highly volatile and its rapid appreciation does not make it an appropriate benchmark for every worker. National stock indices also differ significantly in size, sector composition and investment accessibility.
Average salaries can further conceal substantial differences between age groups, professions and income levels. Actual investment capacity depends on disposable income after housing, taxes, debt payments and other essential expenses not gross annual pay.
Yet the direction of the findings remains significant. Workers may have protected some of their purchasing power at shops and supermarkets, but many have lost substantial ground in the markets through which wealth is accumulated.
The result is a growing divide between income and ownership: earning a salary may sustain consumption, but increasingly it may not be enough to catch the assets that determine long-term financial security.
